Trans install

The car is finally at the shop, just in time too, as we are headed into a christmas snowstorm. The window motor is acting up so Brent will look at that in addition to installing the new transmission, new tie-rod ends, an electric cooling fan and a new coolant level sensor.

Maybe if its warm enough

I'll take the car down to the mechanic today. Forecast calls for +50F, almost a heat-wave in these parts.

GT5 Delayed again

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/12/14/gran-turismo-5-reportedly-shooting-for-summer-2010-release/

So the PS3 is off my X-mas list.

Finally the transmission

I finally found a low mile used transmission on Ebay. It comes from a large BMW specialist in Ohio and is claimed to only have 22k miles. I'm shipping it directly to Castle Rock Imports and will get it installed in the next couple of weeks.

High Plains Raceway - 9/27

This Sunday is a single day event with NASA at High Plains Raceway. Instead of the usual four 20 min sessions the schedule has three 30 or 35 min sessions. I think this is an improvement and I'm looking forward to the longer sessions.

The car is OK -- the trans is still leaking from the main shaft seal -- because the main shaft bearing is worn and there is a lot of play at the input shaft -- but its not too bad. Everything else should be OK.

We are having some really cold weather in Denver now but the forecast says it will warm up -- I would hate to have to add antifreeze for a track-day.

A small scare

I attempted to drive the car to work last Thursday. It was a nice day with little chance rain and it had been parked since the event at Pueblo so it needed a little exercise.

About halfway there I noticed the temp gauge was climbing and within a few seconds the high-temp warning light came on. I pulled over and let it cool and drove it (mostly downhill) to my mechanic. I feared another blown head-gasket but was relieved to find out it was just a stuck thermostat. This is the second one to stick closed, so it's gone. Brett cut the center of it out ensuring that it will never fail again.

I got the car back Friday and drove it for an hour with no problems.

Over the weekend I also installed a set of Schroth Rallye 3 harnesses. These are four-point harnesses designed to be used with stock seats and have the Schroth ASM feature. The car is pulling 1.1-1.2 sustained Gs now which require more than a little effort to stay in the seat. I tend to push against the steering wheel (illustrated by the lack of suede left on the face of the wheel) to hold myself in the seat. These should make driving a lot more comfortable.

IRL @ the track formerly known as Sears Point

This weekend Kathy and I are heading out to Cali to watch the roundy-roundy kids attempt to turn the wheel both ways for a change at the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County. Whew, that's a mouthful.

In preparation I just dug out the Scanner and headsets that I purchased for the Daytona24 a few years ago. I took a couple of minutes to remember how to connect everything and to find a couple of missing parts, but now I think I have everything.

If you have never "heard" a motorsport event with a scanner, you are missing one of the most interesting aspects of the race. Hearing the teams discuss strategy, tactics, and problems gives a view of the event that even TV can't match.

Pueblo Photos

Thanks to Blue Fox Imaging for the proofs

NASA @ Pueblo

Last weekend's NASA event went really well. The new motor performed well, the driver scored a new personal best lap and the Dunlop tires provided a mix of great performance and even better wear in the 100+ degree heat.

I took the full rig to the event and found an enclosed trailer is a nice convenience but generally too warm without an air-conditioner. I also damaged the splitter trying to get the car into the trailer for the first time. In the future, removing the front bumper is an easy solution. Also new this weekend are a set of magnetic number panels. They turned out pretty well.

Umbau die cast

This is an example of a "umbau" M3s that show up on Ebay from time to time. This was a standard "Cecotto" version before the wheels were changed to the over-sized BBS style shown.

The German word "umbau" means conversion/renovation. Here is a link to EC-Cars on Ebay, the seller of these cars from Germany. Search the store for "Umbau" or "Veredelte Modelle" to see a huge collection of modified cars.

Rare die cast M3s

Many Ebay sellers offering 1/18 E30 M3 DTM die cast are quick to advertise that a particular model is "rare". Since most of these have been out of production for a few years, there is some truth to the claim -- but not much.

In any 60-90 day period nearly every model becomes available at a reasonable price on Ebay. There are a few that are a little less common (the BMW dealer-only cars are among these) but nearly all of them of them are readily available if you are patient.

There is a micro-industry modifying the stock kits to make the car into something else. Most commonly the stickers are removed, the car disassembled and repainted, and larger wheels are added to mimic the "Tuner" look. Although "rare" these have never appealed to me.

I recently found a "rare" modified car that does appeal to me. It is a replica of the Demon Tweeks sponsored BTCC M3 as driven by Roland Ratzenburger and later shown at the Goodwood festival.

It appears to be a really high quality job. The owner claims that it is one of three commissioned by Demon Tweeks to celebrate running the real car at Goodwood. That would meet my definition of "rare".

So I broke my $100 rule and bought it for 102 British Pounds. This is the most I have spent on a car so far but given the unique nature of the car I think it was worth it. Here is a picture of the real car at Goodwood and a picture of the car from the e-bay auction. I'll be interested to learn which model was sacrificed to build this replica. The only visible difference between the real car and the replica appears to be the side on which the driver sits. As far as I know there has never been a RHD die cast E30 M3.

Back on Track

I got the M3 (and rebuilt motor) back from the shop a few days ago and have put ~250 miles on it. It feels pretty good. The Vorshlag mounts are mighty stiff and cause a big increase the noise and vibration -- these are not for street cars. The upside of all that noise is that the feel of the shifter is fantastic. The LTW flywheel is a nice improvement and makes the car feel faster if only a little bit.

I'll be heading down to Pueblo for the NASA event this weekend -- which almost didn't happen due to low attendance -- only a last minute plea for drivers saved it.

This will be my first weekend with the enclosed trailer. I got a proportional trailer brake controller installed and a 7" drop hitch last Tuesday. I scored a nice set of "T hook" tie down straps on Ebay. I'm taking Friday off to set up the trailer for the first time.

Assembly

So, the re-assembly of the engine begins. I am really glad I chose to replace the rod bearings. Here is a photo of the #1 rod bearing. Note the damage -- probably caused by oil starvation. The damage is easy to feel with the tip of my finger. Luckily the crankshaft was not damaged. the majority of the damage is to the lower bearing. The upper bearing, which takes the load of each combustion event, shows some pitting. In my case the lower bearing shows considerably more damage (which is not technically wear).
This explains the knocking noise coming from the front of the engine at idle. So the rod bearings are in and torqued.

Over the weekend I had a local welder tack the VAC oil pan baffle in place so that this can be prevented on the future. Here is a photo of the installed baffle. Note that it is welded in at all three attachment points -- the stock baffle uses two pins and a single weld.

Here is a photo of my new (used) front sub-frame after the Turner Motorsport reinforcements were welded in. There are two, one that reinforces the metal where the motor-mount fasteners fit and the other reinforces the area around the first reinforcement. There were noticeable cracks in my original sub-frame which these reinforcements are designed to prevent. Also since this is from a later M3 it has threaded inserts that will allow the factory "X-brace" to be installed. Many drivers report a noticeable improvement in front-end grip after the addition of the X-brace.

My next event is July 11th at Pueblo Motorsports Park. I hope to have the engine back together and in the car by the end of this weekend. I need to put some miles on the motor and clutch before the event. I'm travelling to Philadelphia for the 4th of July holiday and return two days before the event.

Exhaust Valves

Here is a closeup of my fingers and an exhaust valve. It is really clean given the 130k miles on this car. The light grey material is carbon that has built up over time. If you look closely you can see that some of the carbon has broken off. A wire wheel will be used to remove all this before they are reinstalled in the head.

Disassembled Head

Here is the cylinder head almost fully disassembled. The valves, seals, springs, caps and keepers have been removed. It's almost ready to go the the machine shop to be milled so that the bottom is perfectly flat. The machinist will also machine the valve seats and valves so they flow and seal better.

Clutch, Flywheel and other bits

Splitting engine from transmission revealed that my Exxon Valdez-style oil leak was in fact a transmission input-shaft leak. It was so severe that the clutch was soaked an gear oil and must be replaced. This is an opportunity to upgrade to a lighter package and slightly improve acceleration.

After a bunch of research I chose a ~10 lb JB Racing Flywheel and Clutchmasters FX-100 Clutch kit. This combo weighs about 14 lbs, 12 Lbs lighter than the original combo. I originally planned to buy a kit from UUC as their Stage-1 and Stage-2 kits are a little less expensive but their sales department seems unable to return customers repeated calls, so I spent my money with VAC Motorsports instead.

In addition to the clutch/flywheel combo I also ordered a VAC oil pan baffle, ARP Head and Rod bolts and 24 valves worth of hardened valve keepers. This represents the final order -- I hope -- for the rebuild.

Die Cast cars

Ok, I'll admit it, I have a secret collection of model cars. I only collect one kind of car and in only one scale. I am totally obsessed by 1/18 scale BMW E30 M3 DTM race cars. I currently have 17 of them. Not all of them, but pretty close. I'm missing one of the two "Tic-Tac" cars and I don't have either of the BMW issued E30 M3 "Art Cars" -- mostly because they really aren't race cars.

There are only two companies that make these models (AutoArt and Minichamps) and April marked the Minichamps release of the the 1988 "Eifelrennen Nuerburgring" winner driven by Kurt Thiim. It the first new car in a couple of years.

I have a rule that I won't pay over $100 shipped for any car. The best deal I have found on-line is for about $120 shipped so I will keep shopping. E-Bay is a great source for these.

UPDATE June 23, 09: I bought a #31 (as above) for $95.45 shipped on eBay.

Disassembly

Head rebuild and new rod bearings.

With confirmation of the blown head-gasket and the likelihood that the head is warped means that it has to be removed. Given the audible rod-knock and the oil leak at the rear main seal it appears the easiest solution is to remove the entire engine to fix everything at once.

This leaves two options, rebuild or replace with used. After checking a number of sources, I wasn't comfortable that any of the used engines currently available were going to be any better than a partial rebuild.

After discussing my options with a number of reputable engine builders, I think I'm going to completely rebuild the head to OE spec, replace the rod bearings with the pistons and crank still in the block. A full rebuild is tempting, but the additional cost of machining the block and rings/bearings is prohibitive ($2k). Most builders think the mains are bulletproof and BMW rings should be good but will need a good look while things are apart.

Some early decisions include using ARP head bolts and rod bolts, installing a VAC Oil Pan Baffle, and upgrading the valve keepers.

Bummer -- Blown Head Gasket

It looks like I lost the head gasket at the PPIR event a month ago. It slightly overheated and I thought I pulled off the track in time but it appears that I did not. The car shows no symptoms on the street but on the track after extended sessions (20+ min.) it starts to slowly overheat and after pulling off the track the cooling system is fully presurized and spit about a half gallon of coolant. I drove a couple of days at HPR with it blown but it was cold enough (30s-40s) that it was also asymptomatic. However in the 85 degree heat of Pueblo it failed pretty quickly.

My options are:

1. Replace just the head gasket.
2. Replace head gasket and rebuild top-end
3. Rebuild entire motor
4. Swap to used motor

Option One is a bad choice for a track car as the head is likely warped and will need to be surfaced to provide reliable sealing for more than a couple of months. Not gonna do it.

Two is pretty attractive. It's relatively inexpensive, will provide a long-term solution and can be done in a home garage. There is really only problem with this. It's not enough. In addition to the headgasket, I also have a Exxon Valdez style oil leak from the rear main seal. So to get to that I need to pull the engine or drop the trans.

Rebuilding is also attractive -- it seems better than a used motor of unknown history but it is really expensive. This on only really an option if I do the work myself. Labor on a full top and bottom rebuild is well over $5000 and can approach $10k. It appear that this can be done at home for about $3500k in parts and tools

The final option, a motor swap, is pretty attractive, 3.2L S52USs seem to sell for $2500-$3000. This is a little more displacement than my current 3.0L S50US and by using all my OBD-1 accessories it is a simple swap.

The real decision here is: who does the work? I have the technical ability and the tools to do it myself. I just don't think I have the time. I spoke to a local shop and they reccomended the swap as it is the most labor effiecent option. In fact they think the full motor swap is cheaper than a top-end.

So any way you look at it, this is a $2500 -- $5500 unbudgeted expense. Shit.

HPR Analysis

Here is a track map and speed/distance chart of a 30 Min session at HPR in the M3. I'm actually quite proud of this session as I was focused on carrying more speed into corners and clear improvments are shown in the data.

This was my first session on Nittos and the average lateral G for the session was .2 G higher than a similer session on Kuhmo MXs a month earlier. It was cold and blustery -- 45-50 degrees F and overcast.


Segment 1

Turn 1 is a fast, flat 60 mph left and the end of the second longest straight. The apex is slightly obstructed by the pit wall on entry. On the first laps I was slowing to 57.4 mph, over the next 7 laps that increased to 61.5 Mph. Minimum speed is directly related to exit speed, so this is worth 3/10th in this segment but will also help in the next segment.

Segment 2

Turn two is a 180 degree sweeper and there is a 3-2 downshift under braking and a 2-3 up shift 100 ft after track-out. I've tried the whole thing in third and the data shows that the shift is worth 1/10 in the ~10 second segment.

Segment 3

Turn three is a little kink leading onto the straight and the most important corner on the track.

This is a corner that is easy to overdrive, it is tempting to carry a bunch of speed in, but the really fast way is to be really smooth in and get in the throttle before the apex. There was a 5/10 improvement from lap 2 through lap 7 and an increase in minimum speed from 60.4 mph to 65.8 mph. Unfortunately there is not a total correlation between the highest minimum speed (at the apex of 3) and the highest maximum speed (at the exit of the segment). There is correlation between the highest minimum speed and and the shortest time for the segment.

Segment 4

Segment 4 is the end of the back straight, a slightly uphill right hand 90 with a slightly blind apex. As you can see from the speed/distance chart I am braking later and slowing less with each lap. It's really all about not slowing down too much.

Segment 7

This is a high speed, steeply uphill sweeper that falls away near the top. To is easily one of the most entertaining corners on the track.

What is shown in the middle of the segment is less and less braking at entry. Notice how the speed conserved early is carried all the way to the end of the segment.

Faster in is faster out here -- the more speed you can carry in, the more speed you retain climbing the hill. There is a 5/10th sec and almost 3 mph difference between the best and worst.

Segment 9

Another entertaining corner, downhill, off-camber, with risky run-off. Again the speed/distance chart shows slowing less and less each lap.

In summary, the data shows a consistent improvement, taking little bites, and the reward is better laps.

From Lap 2 (2:13.57) to Lap 8 (2:12.45) there is a 1.1 sec reduction in lap time. The Traqmate claims the Theoretical Best lap (combining all the best segments into a single lap is 2:10.05, So I have plenty of room to improve consistency.




Here is a friction circle for the same session. Notice how accelleration is grouped -- the strongest (in second gear) is shown by a dark line near the bottom of the chart, third gear acceleration is shown by the darker line above.

This indicates that this is a HP limited car, since it can accelerate near the max and turn near the max at the same time. It also shows that this is a clockwise track because the left side is darker than the right.

Innovative cage design ideas

There are so many good cage design ideas here it's hard to know where to start.

I'm certainly going to copy that upper windshield bar so close that it touches the drivers head. It's important that the head firmly contact the cross bar before the belts have a chance to tighten up. Also during heavy braking, the driver can rest his neck, important for those long enduro races.

Note how close the knees are to the ironically names "knee bar". Again, important to have solid contact before the belts begin to tighten.

Now note the creative bends in the main hoop, sure, some sanctioning bodies may not approve of such creative design, but they are simply behind the times and don't understand how important looks are inside a race car.

Maybe this guy is looking for a co-driver for some upcoming event. Where do I sign up?

Fender Rollin'

The snow is just starting to fall, tomorrow's lapping day at HPR is a long-shot now. So I'll add a couple of pics of the fender rolling last weekend. I rolled the first side with only the tiniest crack in the paint. I took the same care on the second side and instantly caused a 6" crack.

Most of the focus is on the back half of the arch. This is where the tire is closest to the fender. I scraped all of the body-filler out and rolled the lip almost completely flat.

As you can see, even a large 255 R-Comp fits a full compression on both sides. It took about 2.5 hours. I helped to have two floor jacks when confirming that the tire fits as full compression.

This isn't good

A Winter Storm Watch predicting 10-20 inches of snow on Friday. Looks like the lapping day may be at risk.

Statement as of 6:39 AM MDT on April 15, 2009

A Winter Storm Watch remains in effect from Thursday evening through Saturday morning.

A chance of mixed snow and rain is expected for much of Thursday night before changing over to snow by early Friday morning. Heavy snow is possible over the urban corridor Palmer Ridge and western Weld County on Friday continuing into Saturday morning. Possible accumulations could range from 10 to 20 inches of heavy wet snow. Strong north northeast winds of 15 to 35 mph are also expected late Thursday night into Saturday morning.

High Plains Raceway

I drove High Plains Raceway a couple of weeks ago. I did their Friday Lapping Day the day before the first SCCA Regional.

What a great track. It is really technical, lots of elevation change and beautiful new asphalt. I drove over 5 hours including one 2+ hour session that was a tank of gas from full to empty. All this track time really killed the consumables. I burned through half a set of tires and half a set of front pads. I took the opportunity to change both -- I'm going to Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec tires to gain better wet weather performance and instead of the Performance Friction 01 Compound (Which I love) I'm going to try the new 06 compound to get a little better wear and shift the brake balance to the rear by continuing to run PF01 in the rear.

I'm headed back for a full three days this weekend. I've got a new set of 255 Nitto NT01s if it's dry and a set of 245 Dunlops in case of rain.

NASA @ Pikes Peak

I did a one day NASA Instructor Certification event at Pikes Peak Raceway last Saturday. It was a really interesting event, highly educational, and really fun. The weather was really cold, 23F when I arrived a 7am and never climbing above 40 all day.

The car was a mixed bag. It ran well, and the off-season weight loss (180 lbs) is aparent. The new super-ergonomic combo of steering wheel and tall "Jaffster" knob is really comfortable.

Unfortunately the event ended early when the upper radiator hose came off and the engine pumped all it's coolant on to the track. I never saw or felt if happen, I just smelled the sticky-sweet scent of coolant, and pulled in ASAP. I was lucky not to loose the motor.

It appears to be my fault as the clamp may not have been tightened completely as I was a little nervous about crushing the aluminum radiator nipple. It took a while to replace the coolant and by the time is was refilled my last session was over. Ces't la guerre.

Gone are original LTW wheels that came with the car. It was really hard to let them go -- they are my favorite BMW wheels and really suit the car. However their staggered sizing made them useless for the track so I replaced them with another set of Kosei K1s shod with Nitto NT01s in 255/40-17. I looked at a lot of track wheels, but in the end the low cost of the Koseis in 17x8.5 trumped more expensive wheels in 17x9.

I've been running the smaller 245/40s and will probably need to roll the rear fenders a bit to fit 255s on 8.5 w/40mm offset wheel.

Snow

It's Friday morning, I have to be at the track for a meeting at 7pm tonight and there is almost two feet of snow on the roads. It's 9 degrees now heading for a high of 25 and tomorrow may get all the way to 40.

The idea of driving a 2900 pound race car 70 miles through the snow on 255 R-Comp tires is terrifying. Since I sold my street tires last week, my only choice is to borrow the wheels from the wife's 3 series. I'm not sure the 8.5" 50mm offset rears will actually fit since all my 8.5 are 42mm. Mostly I'm waiting to hear something official from NASA before trying to fit them.

I'm really not looking forward to driving in sub-freezing temps. I'll also have to add more antifreeze to the radiator to keep from loosing another.

Sometimes I really hate living in Colorado.

2009 Open Track Schedule

March 28 Pikes Peak NASA Instructor Clinic (Done)
April 3 HPR Lapping Day (Done)
April 17 HPR Lapping Day
April 18-19 HPR NASA Instructor/HPDE
April 24 HPR Lapping Day
May 15-17 Pueblo NASA Instructor/HPDE
July 11-12 Pueblo NASA Instructor/HPDE
August 8-9 Hastings NASA Instructor/HPDE
Sept 10-13 Miller NASA Nationals
Sept 27 HPR NASA Instructor/HPDE
Oct 31-1 HPR NASA Instructor/HPDE

Radiator Solution

After coveting the Zionsville Competition Cooling kit, I've decided on a more budget friendly solution. Bimmerworld offers a self-branded all aluminum radiator for much less then a Fluidyne or C&R. It claims to be identical to the OEM radiator so can be used with the stock fan shroud and overflow tank -- not my preferred solution but it is much easier (and much less expensive) than installing the Euro overflow tank or engineering another solution.

My new, low cost plan is to keep the stock fan shroud, trim it back so that it really only holds the new OEM overflow tank. The trimming is to make room for a 16" SPAL electric fan that will attach directly to the radiator core. Not as elegant as the Zionsville solution, but it costs less then half as much.

I also ordered a Stewart high-performance water pump, colder 75c thermostat, thermostat housing, and OE hose kit.

I'll admint some buyer's remorse right after ordering, I tried to cancel and order the Zionsville. For good or for bad Bimmerworld had already boxed and shipped the order. Looking back, I'm glad to have saved the money.

Preseason Preparation

Three weeks to the first event so, Saturday morning I dusted off the car and started it up for the first time this year. I used a Battery Tender all winter with my new Odyssey battery and it worked perfectly and started first turn.

A brief warm-up and quick trip to the big traffic circle and a couple of slippy/slidey laps and back to the garage to check it out. The puddle slowly forming under the nose of the car was not a good sign.

A closer look showed it the be the typical BMW radiator failure where one of the plastic end caps starts leaking where it attaches to the aluminum core. Shit.

So Sunday morning I started to pull the radiator and associated components. The first major problem was the the fan clutch was totally frozen to the water pump shaft. Any one familiar with removing a fan clutch know that the trick is to hold the water pump pulley while turning the nut on the back of the clutch. So after 3-4 attempts with increasing violence and ever larger hammers, we know have Scott swinging a 4 Lb sledge at a pair of Park Tool 32mm headset wrenches and I'm folding the pulley with a 10mm wrench on one of the pulley bolts and a 24" cheater bar on the 10mm wrench. I don't know how many safety violations that is, but it's a lot. about a second later the cheater bar of course slips, and my middle finger takes the full force of the following swing. Ouch. I don't think it's broken, but it sure does hurt.


I ended up removing the water pump, pulley, and fan clutch in one piece and cutting the water pump shaft with a sawzall.

In doing so I discovered that the same jackass mechanic that installed that fan clutch with super-human strength (and no anti-sieze), also installed a new waterpump with a plastic impeller fully confirming their total mechanical incompetance.

I now need to decode how much radiator to buy to replace the stock one. On one hand I could simply buy another stock water pump, radiator, overflow tank, fan and fan clutch. this is about $500. For about $1000 I can get an all-aluminum racing radiator with an electric fan and save a little horsepower . Finally I could go all out and for $2000 get the racing radiator with a complete Euro M3 oil cooler built in.

I've never had any cooling problems with my car, so I'm not sure an oversize radiator is required and the Euro oil-cooler is really just a nice to have.

I've got a bit more research before making a decision.

Bangle - Gone!

Yippee, the moron responsible for the pathetic BMW design of recent years is leaving BMW and the auto industry.

The press release reads like a love fest, but Bangle's stay at BMW has been rife with conflict. Contrary to the release Bangle had little to do the the design of the Mini (much of which was designed external from BMW). His first catastrophe was the 7 series. What a train wreck! He also mangled the 5 and 3 series. The only car he designed that isn't a total disaster is the 6 series. It's only a disaster from a couple of angles.

BMW fans will note that the shift away from his ham-fisted (sorry edge-flame-polished) design began a couple of years ago when he moved/was moved from day-to-day design. Note that the new M3 (which actually looks OK) was completed after he was sent upstairs.

So, we BMW fans can only hope that the scars he leaves behind fade quickly.

Real barn find

1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante found in a garage after 40 years. Could reset the record for most expensive car ever auctioned -- but the economy may cause it to fall short. Still among the best looking of all Bugatti.

UPDATE: The car sold today (7 Feb 09) for 3.4m Euro ($4.4m USD) well short of the pre-bid hype. Still a spectacular find.